Impact of partial shade on superior photovoltaic array total cross tied configuration
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The ability of a Photovoltaic array to generate maximum power is influenced by the Partial Shading Condition. Optimized strategies are therefore essential to improve energy harvesting capability of a Photovoltaic array. The effective interconnection of Photovoltaic modules can solve this problem. Of all the conventional configurations, the Total Cross Tied interconnection method has been proven to effectively extract maximum power from the Photovoltaic System. This research article focuses on a detailed investigation of temporary shading on a superior total cross-tied configuration. Here, four practical field shading conditions - Corner, Border, Random, and Diagonal- are considered for the study. Forty-nine 200 W 7×7 PV TCT connected Sun Earth Solar Power TPB 156×156-54-P 200W PV modules are modeled and simulated in MATLAB-Simulink environment. Performance indices were analyzed based on open circuit voltage, short circuit current, current at maximum power, voltage at maximum power, and maximum extracted power. The novelty of this research lies in identifying the behavior of the TCT configuration in maintaining the near-constant efficiency under diverse shading scenarios. Research also shows strong inter-dependency between the fill factor and the mismatch power loss. An increase in fill factor results in reduced mismatch power loss, indicating improved utilization of power and hence improved efficiency.
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